2014 > 2013

Out with the old, in with the new. It's been quite a year, friends, and certainly quiet one, digitally speaking.

On May 15th, 2013, two days after our scheduled departure for five weeks backpacking in Europe, my wife, Krystal, was diagnosed with a classical Hodgkin Lymphoma. Needless to say, by this point we were certainly not doing any backpacking. Long story short, on October 15th, 2013, after four full rounds of chemotherapy, Krystal was declared in complete clinical remission.

See! Good news! We'll just ignore the bad news that came first, right?

Like I said, quite a year. But we came out on a high note, certainly. On account of having already quit our jobs, stowed our earthly belongs, and selling our house in South Dakota, we spent six months in Arizona where we got to spend some quality time with Krystal's family during her treatment. I found work that kept me busy and the medical collectors at bay, but unfortunately left me in a clay- and studio-less state. In October, my wife was offered a job in Northern Colorado. With the clean bill of health in tow, we returned to the Rocky Mountain State and are making a home (and studio) in Loveland, CO.

[That really is the shortest version of the story. Mayhaps there is more to be shared later. This is it for now. Thanks for understanding.]

So: back on the road to having a studio up and running. Still some logistical issues to sort out in preparing the house for full studio-ness, but the bottom line is that there is clay in my immediate future, and I'm very much looking forward to sharing whatever 2014 may have to offer.

Currently working on a few small projects related to getting the studio up and running and should be able to offer some sort of a post on that in the near future.

In the meantime: Happy New Year!

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And as a PS: in as much as there's a lot of 2013 I'd like to just put in a box and forget about, please celebrate with me my favorite music from last year. Because, you know, that's kind of a thing I do.

10. Justin Timberlake, "The 20/20 Experience."

I'll probably losing my indie cred for including this record on my list, but let's face it: this two-part project is chock-full of undeniably catchy pop. I lean toward Part I in my including it on the list, but I won't back down and am not ashamed to say that "Suit & Tie" was my jam for the better part of 2013. Check out: "Suit & Tie"

9. STRFKR, "Miracle Mile." 

Though I'd certainly hesitate to even mention them by name in polite conversation, I was really first introduced to this band by their inclusion in one of this year's SoundSupply Drops. And it's just an impeccable Alt-Rock/Pop album all the way through. This one became an almost immediate favorite of mine and was certainly perfect for summer in the desert. Check out: "While I'm Alive"

8. Atoms for Peace, "Amok."

Pet project of Thom Yorke (Radiohead) notably featuring Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the extremely talented Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronko, and Mauro Refosco. Great mood music for a long, hard year. Along the same vein as Yorke's solo outing ("Eraser") and Radiohead's latest "King of Limbs," it's a great electro-jazz groover. Check out: "Before Your Very Eyes"

7. Citzens, "Citizens."

It's rare anymore that I come upon a "Christian" radio station that plays anything I'm really excited about listening to, much less introduces me to a new artist. Citizens certainly blew those expectations out of the water after I heard their song "Made Alive" on the radio in Phoenix this summer. This is just a good record for fans of music (alt-rock, specifically). Check out: "Made Alive"

6. The Hawk In Paris, "Freaks."

Dark pop. Clever lyrics, cleverer hooks. Hard not to groove along with this project featuring Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay) on lead vocals. Check out: "Freaks"

5. Leagues, "You Belong Here."
Great danceable pop-rock here. I was grandfathered into my Leagues fandom via guitarist Tyler Burkum's previous work as a solo artist, hired gun (Mat Kearney, Matthew Perryman Jones) and as longtime lead guitarist of Audio Adrenaline (arguably his least engaging work as a musician thus far). Great beats, grooves, melodies, and harmonies throughout. Check out: "Walking Backwards (Live)"

4. The Civil Wars, "The Civil Wars."
I hope they're able to work out their "irreconcilable differences of ambition" to bring us more music, because Joy Williams and John Paul White make magical things happen together. Check out: "Dust to Dust"

3. The National, "Trouble Will Find Me."
I'm a late adopter of these slow-building indie darlings (2010's "High Violet" made a believer of me). This is a nearly flawless record. Haunting and beautiful, with layers upon layers of sonic master strokes. Check out: "The National - NPR Tiny Desk Concert"

1. TIE - Derek Webb, "I Was Wrong, I'm Sorry, & I Love You" / Jars of Clay, "Inland."
Two beautiful records from artists that write consistently write some of the truest music exploring the depths of life, love, and faith. Definitely worth checking out, regardless your personal feelings on any of those topics. Webb returns to his alternative rock/country roots after several experimental records for this beautiful collection of songs, while Jars of Clay forges new, yet familiar, ground again with a record that simply feels more "real" than just about anything else out there these days.

Check out: Derek Webb, "Everything Will Change"

Check out: Jars of Clay, "Love in Hard Times"

A Mid-Globetrotting Update

Greetings, friends!

Thought I'd pop in and send a few photos your way. In addition to "the move," we're looking a lot of travel in our immediate future (and immediate past). Krystal had to travel to Pennsylvania the last week of April for the annual meeting of a board on which she serves, so I tagged along for the trip. 

We spent a couple days in Philadelphia catching the sights (historical and otherwise) and practicing for our upcoming European backpacking trip (what, I haven't mentioned that yet?) with efficient packing and hostel accommodations. As someone who has always been an automobile traveler (me), this was a great dry run on which to learn "Yes, you definitely need to bring this" and "No, you definitely don't need to bring that" and "Why is Luke's backpack smaller and lighter than Krystal's? That doesn't seem fair!" So, obviously a lot going on there.  Oh, look - pictures!

Independence Hall. Quite impressive from down the green.

Liberty Bell/Independence Hall.

Found Ben Franklin's privy. Definitely not the most fascinating part of the Ben Franklin houses area, but still seemed like we ought to snag a photo of that one. 

We managed to coordinate our visit to coincide with the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Wednesday night "pay what you want" special. The Museum stayed open until 9 and attracted a diverse crowd and many families with kids for whom the $20 tickets might otherwise have been prohibitive, while also offering special activities for children of all ages, free guided tours, and yoga in the galleria staircase, just to mention a few things. It was great fun and a good warm-up for all the museum-ing we'll be tackling in Europe (have I mentioned that trip yet?).  But anyway, saw some great art by great artists and very excited to see even more.

They had really quite a tremendous collection of Picasso's works.

Also tremendous: a collection of Brancusi sculptures, this representing about 1/3 of the collection. Absolutely beautiful lines, movement, form, and texture. 

Found some pottery in the American gallery. Something art nouveau-y. Beautiful greens.

Found this Qing Dynasty porcelain jar in one of the roccoco period rooms. More beautiful greens. 

Despite her pacifistic leanings, the gallery of medieval arms and armor was Krystal's favorite. That or Renoir. So, you know, those are obvious pairings.

Finished our days in Philadelphia with tours of the Independence Hall complex. While Independence Hall was nifty (you know, famous history, the actual chair where George Washington sat as president of the Continental Congress, whatever...) it didn't come off as nearly as impressive as our experience of Congress Hall which was home to the first sitting congress of the United States of America. So that was pretty neat.

The first US House Chamber.

The first US Senate Chamber.

 We then spent a couple days just outside of Philadelphia at Pendle Hill, a charming Quaker retreat center, for Krystal's board meeting. I made it a point to have my own retreat for the days spent there as well, and was pleased to discover a full pottery studio in their craft room. I spent an afternoon throwing some pots and enjoying some great conversation with some of the resident students on campus, and left three pieces to be fired and glazed at their discretion. Was a refreshing time after having packed my studio up for the move.

Three pieces to stay behind at Pendle Hill.

When I wasn't throwing pots and being contemplative at my leisure, I was instructed to put some effort into itinerizing our time overseas. So I did spend a lot of time doing stuff that looked like this.

After almost a week on the east coast it was time to return and deal with real life stuff. Like loading a moving truck. That was a chore, but we have wonderful friends who made it possible and not miserable.

See all those blue bins? Those are pots YOU didn't buy, so I had to move them. Ugh.

Now all our earthly belongs are in storage and we're taking a spell off from the real world to do some globetrotting (specifically, abroad).  One week from today we'll be on our way across the pond to spend roughly five weeks hiking and train-ing our way across the continent. Should have some great stories to share when we return. 

Take care!

Happy Birthday! And stuff...

Well, I did it again - successfully went a full month between updates.  Apparently I've been doing things other than pottery. Mostly. When I do get into the studio, I'm much more apt to post a picture on Facebook or Twitter.

Because, also: you should go like my Facebook page. More pictures, more frequently, and sometimes other things that you might like. Generally things that I like. Music, other artists, thoughts and ponderings. Anyway. Check it out!

Speaking of, Facebook informs me I have 4 friends who were born on this day in history. That seems like a relatively high amount for one day. So that's, you know, worth noting. But more importantly, today is my father's birthday. And he was actually born IN history. When I was in high school we actually learned about stuff that happened AFTER he was born, so that's significant. I wonder how late they're teaching history these days anyway?* But that's really not important. What's important is that he was born, and then he lived for some years, and now here he is and he's my dad and has been (since before I was born, actually!) for some time now and that's pretty cool. So happy birthday, Paul (Dad) Langholz!

On to the important things. If I haven't been throwing oodles of noodles, where I have I been? Here's a guide...

After my show I thought it would be healthy to step back, take a little break, collect my thoughts... and then we had company for a few days and I got sick and things just sort of went from there.

Unpacked everything that came home from Iowa. Took inventory. Deciding what to throw next.

Took a look at things that DIDN'T go to Iowa. Thinking maybe I need to have a Facebook Inventory Reduction Clearance Sale.

Went off Apple Orcharding. Found a tractor. It was pretty neat.

Played some soccer with my dog. She's pretty fierce.

Played some guitar. Also doing some repair and maintenance work on them. Certain projects were a long time coming on those. Guitars generally sound better without post-factory holes. Just saying.

Played some board games. Sometimes the Robber takes an alternative form in our household. Also, cute Robbers are harder to get (as) upset about.

Played some... no, wait. This is just the sign out front of our church. It's been a hot one up here. Moving right along...

Took in some live music in the Sioux Falls area over Labor Day. Pictured is House of Heroes, headlining an amazing night at the festival. I saw them once in 2005 at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall club in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They've come along way, and they were amazing. Check them out.**

So that just about brings us up to speed. I have a show coming up (8 weeks out) and I'm realizing I'm a bit understocked. But I'm also not willing to stress out about it because I've decided that I'd rather enjoy the process of getting there and feel a little picked over at the end of the weekend than maintain a fully stocked display for the duration of a show but spend the months prepping for it in constant agony over my volume. There's a happy medium in there somewhere (something like don't ever take a month off from throwing and maintain a steady base inventory) but oh well.

But I have been throwing the last couple weeks/days. I've spent a lot of time messing about with larger pieces, most of which end up scrapped because I'm a bit too picky maybe. And one very nice, large sectional piece that I accidentally left uncovered for an undisclosed amount of time before it had been trimmed to shape and thus it was fail and sadness.  But I'm getting back to the nitty-gritty functional throwing now to replenish what has been sold and distributed for selling.

Playing with mugs again. Ways to incorporate my "voice" a bit more than simply splashing about with glaze.

2-pounders. Conspicuously absent from my inventory these days. A good problem.

More of these guys. Right now sticking with the 2-pounder size. There are a couple larger ones already drying, and I'm sure I'll throw a hump of baby ones later this month.

Hard to tell, but that's a wide shallow bowl, not a platter. For a commission piece (I think).

Broad, broad bowl in this style.

All together, now - say, "Cheese!"

I've also been commissioned to create a set of Communion service wares for our congregation, so that's a fun little project I'll be embarking on in the near future.

And that would be everything I've really got time to share right now. If you're at all interested in commissioning something special (or reserving something of a specific style) for the holidays, now's the time to do it!  Drop me a line at lukelangholz (at) msn (dot) com or contact me via private message on Facebook or Twitter - though really, e-mail is currently still the best method of proper communication.  So it's back to the grind.

Thanks for stopping by, y'all. Have a great weekend!


*I'm totally chasing this thought, as distracting as it may be: at what point do they decide what to cut from history classes? Because with every passing year there's more history to teach. The last proper history class I took was American Heritage History my junior year of high school. As I recall, we spent close to a month on the Civil War, and then America post-Vietnam got approximately half of a class period's worth of attention the day before finals. And believe it or not, there's a whole extra decade of material to cover since then. Just curious at what point you decide, "Eh, it's time to throw out the carpetbaggers and reconstruction, and might as well toss the Era of Good Feelings too, no matter how memorable it is - gotta make room for at least ten minutes of classroom discussion on post-9/11 foreign policy and God forbid we actually shorten our coverage of the Civil War..."  Anyhow. Back to the regularly scheduled content.

** Other highlights from the weekend of live music included:

• Jenny & Tyler (an adorable husband'n'wife duo out of Nashville who make beautiful alt-folk together).
• Sosaveme (indie band out of Michigan who make beautiful "aggressive alternative" music together - I highly recommend their most recent release, "The Garden."
• Run Kid Run (nothing dramatically original or different going on in this pop-punk outfit, but one of the better non-headliners we saw).
• Five Iron Frenzy (ska-punk-all-out-frenzy of a show. If you don't know about Five Iron I'm not going to try and describe them now, but WOW. My favorite from them is their 1997 sophomore release, "Our Newest Album Ever.")

Two weeks to go.

Busy busy busy! I suppose for most working artists it's not so big of a deal to prepare for one show or another, one event after another, but as someone still just getting started (really) in the vending and fair-ing of my pots, each show brings new challenges (opportunities) for stepping up my game. It may be a long time until doing a show is anything resembling routine, but each step gets me closer.

Of specific note, I was glad to enlist my father's help in the garage this weekend in tackling a building project in prep for the upcoming show. Saws, drills, wood glue, sawdust, spackle, splinters, and blood. All in a day's work, right?

Makeshift clay-box sawhorses.

The end result.

Starting out at noon with not much more than my sorry excuse for schematics and a half-baked idea, I now have a set of nesting pedestals to take on the road with me. So that's thrilling. And maybe not before the coming show (CLEAR LAKE ART SAIL - JULY 28th - CLEAR LAKE, IOWA - BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!!), but with this batch under the belt and a garage full of scrap trimmings, I'm well set to build some table-top display pedestals and such to go along with. Like I said, stepping up the game, one step at a time. Still some sanding and painting to go on these, but not too shabby considering where we sat at noon.

Other than that, the last several weeks have been filled with lots of trimming, drying, firing, and last minute throwing. Some a little too last minute. Had a minor casualty in the last firing - thrown too late, trimmed too late, and didn't have quite enough time to dry before it went in the kiln. A portion of the center of the trimmed foot ring crumbled (exploded) in the firing. From the top, the bowl is quite lovely. Flip it over and it looks like an ogre tried to eat my signature. So that's too bad. Salvageable for my own personal use, or perhaps selling to family or VERY close friend, but not something I'm going to let out into the world at cost to a paying customer. I have standards, you know. In the end: sad story. I could have waited another day to load the kiln: I didn't actually get the chance to glaze this week, so pushing the bisque for another twenty-four hours wouldn't have hurt any, BUT it also wasn't even the piece that I was most worried about being too wet. Go figure, huh?

So... here's what else has been going on:

Last minute vases. Trying out new things.

Another Arizona.

Celebrated America's Birthday. Anything more American than apple pie? Temperance also enjoyed it. Most of it. While we were out. And it was on the counter. Dog.

This would be the one that exploded its foot in the kiln. Won't be heading to the show with me, but will be glazing and finishing.

Loading up the bisque. I was a bit concerned I'd have to leave something out. It all fit just fine.

Mandatory kiln-shot. Almost there!

Bisque. Now just waiting to glaze.

So, glazing is now in the near future. For the record, all these photos were shared as they were taken via my Twitter and Facebook. Follow or Like! me for all the craziness on a daily basis.

That's all for now, folks. Hopefully I'll check in with y'all before the show. Woo! Counting down...

I haven't been so good at the blogging this fortnight, but I have been doing some steady potting. Not as much maybe as I'd like or prefer, but a fair enough amount. Focusing less on producing oodles of product and more on producing high quality pieces. I feel like I'm doing alright.

I also got a new phone, which is really neither here nor there save for the fact that I now want to take pictures of everything via Instagram. And given my proclivity for not taking a real camera into the studio with me, this upgrade is quite exciting and hopefully I'll maintain my curating with greater success once the novelty has abandoned.

So here's what I've been up to, presented via the artfully filtered Instagram:

Biggie vase. Nice lip, that. Decent balance. Some weight in the foot, but that will come out.

A trio of large-ish bowls. Six-to-eight pounders. Focusing on getting the rounder shape as opposed to my traditionally vertically-oriented bowls.

This one was either a 10 or 12 pounder. Probably a little more clay in the foot than there ought to be, but a bowl this big has to have a solid base when throwing or it will collapse on itself.

Some test bowls. I need to be experimenting with some glaze overlays. Looking for dynamic reactions akin to my favorite, as seen here.  Only different.

This is a big'un. She'll get the IYFC Blue treatment.

A small forest of vases.

Whilst not in the studio, spent some time out at a Harry Potter birthday party.  That's perfectly normal activity for a bunch of late-twenty-somethings, right?

Finding "high art" in the mundane. I'm pretty sure that's what Instagram was created for, right?

"Local History," I call it.

So that's that. And also doing some non-ceramic planning for the Clear Lake Art Sail that is now 2 months away. Quite excited and looking forward to bringing my work home, so to speak. Put it on your calendar: July 28th, 9 AM - 4 PM, City Park, Clear Lake, Iowa.

So there you go. Have a wonderful week, y'all!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

All About Music, 2011 Edition.

Well, it only took me a month two months three months! to getting this post up. Would you believe me if I told you I started it before Christmas? But then there was more music, and life happened, and some pots, and here we are. I've not been as busy in the studio as I'd like to have been the last couple of weeks, but sometimes we just have to take what we can get. And what time I have had has not been well documented. I've got a handful of pictures from my phone that will probably make it up here, and often are shared (in real time!) on Twitter. In the meantime, I thought it best to post the following little ditty before any more time has lapsed it into irrelevance. Before you know it I'll have my own opinion about 2012 (assuming we're all still here next January).

See? Our calendar stops after 2012. I mean sure, it's Aztec, not Mayan, but it clearly doesn't cross a day into 2013!

I'm aware that this is completely self indulgent and primarily for my own enjoyment, but I hope you enjoy it, too. Please feel free to tell me what I got wrong, what I got right, and what I missed out on. What was your favorite music of 2011? Was it a new artist? An old favorite with a new release? Heck, I don't care if it was new music. If it was new to you, I'd love to hear about it. Always looking for new tunes, that's me.

If you're not at all interested in my taste in music, come back soon - I'm sure there's pottery on the horizon. If you care to indulge my fancy, stay right here.

Mobile Update: Happy President's Day!

Greetings after a nice long weekend! Normally these three day breaks in the normal work schedule mean more time for me to get into the clay, but this time around it meant getting out of town for a couple days. Krystal and I headed for the Hills for a couple nights for, among other things, spelunking.

This is a picture in a cave! What!

We didn't have anything set in stone, but mostly wanted to head to the "big" city for some fun and games, and hoped to find some adventure outside of Rapid City. We found it in the form of Jewel Cave National Monument - which is actually the 2nd longest cave in the world! Current surveyed length is somewhere around 190 miles, and geologists estimate (based on air flow exchanges and lots of math) that this accounts for less than 5% of the total cave volume. In fact, since early December surveyors have added an additional 4 miles of previously uncharted cave. Wild, huh? 

Then we braved a blizzard to drive back home and I got to work on some bowls. And here are some pictures, courtesy of my Boysenberry smartphone.

Trying some new things, decoratively.

A few of these.

 

A couple more.

So there you have it. Big city adventure times, exploring caves, braving blizzards, and blue-slipped bowls. That's it for now, folks. See ya later!